5 Bait & Switch
by redcloudedleopard
Summary: This will include another chapter or two. The FF members switch their powers in the same way as the TV episode, & Ozai accidentally trades his brains with Azula's firebending powers! :D
1. Switched Skills & Muddled Minds

An emergency shutdown was ordered. A flash of blinding green followed which could be seen from outside. In seconds the lab seemed to sparkle, & the Four were on the floor in a dazed state.

"Sis, you okay?" Sue didn't answer. She turned to her brother & her face was mortified; she let out a shrill scream. "What?" asked Johnny. "Whoa! My hands!" Looking down, he couldn't see anything despite holding out his hands. He got up feeling a little shaky. Sue knocked against the console by accident - & the next moment her body was set aflame. Her panic was approaching boiling point now. "Fire! Fire!" A rocky foot landed in front of Johnny, who drew back in shock. That foot was Reed's, only he was coated in orange gravel. He tried to shush them, "This is no problem. Just need to - " He hesitated to continue after hearing coughs & wheezes from behind the console. A _very human_ hand grabbed the top of the desk & pulled up a cured Ben. The rest were speechless. "I didn't get any uglier, did I?" asked Ben, now a really major object of scrutiny.

The elevator doors opened to reveal Azula & Ozai. Most peculiarly, both were on their knees letting out slow breaths, eyes half shut. "Are you two feeling okay?" Sue asked them. "Not really. The room's revolving..," said Azula. "We felt some sort of surge.." "Did H.E.R.B.I.E. say 'power overload'?" asked Ozai. Reed nodded.

Ben was engrossed in his new self. "My hands..they're human! I'm human again! Yes!!!!" But when he stretched his arms they elongated to the ceiling. The others guessed it right. Reed explained how the whole case was likely to be that of a power switch. He pinned it on the cosmic rays which he used to bombard vegetable samples just moments earlier. Sue hadn't yet gotten the better of her fear. "I'm okay..I'm okay..I'm on fire but I'm okay.." She flamed off when shutting her eyes & putting her hands together, but it didn't last. "Will somebody put me out!!!" she yelled.

"I'm on fire too!" Ozai's clenched fists burned bright blue. His breathing remained rhythmic & consistent. "Breathe, Sue," he added. Azula threw him a narrow-eyed gaze, "You didn't have permission to do that." Her tone was low & stern. To Ozai's surprise she suddenly pulled a doll-like face. "Just kidding," she said. It appeared that some petty, long-term fight still raged between her & Johnny; Johnny pointed out, "You don't have any powers, do you?" He snickered. "I do too!" she snapped back. She dashed toward him & delivered a couple of swift leopard punches - to Johnny's solar plexus. He was on his knees the next second, clutching his stomach. "Watch it. I've got my dad's striking accuracy & strength," Azula chuckled.

Ben still paid no attention to anything but his regained (not to mention elastic) body. He felt surfaces around the lab with his fingertips & palms, even shaking Ozai's hand just for fun. Sue began to hover around helplessly & burned a large robotic arm. "No, no, no you're doing it all wrong!" shouted Johnny after he got up again. "I want my powers back!" The whole lab was rendered invisible by his emotions. "I did that? Cool!" he had to say. Ben spotted a reddish black sphere floating outside. "What in the blue blazes is that?" The sphere disappeared too soon. Sue flamed off & had a pratfall on the floor, & the lab became visible again. "Reed..I'm sorry. I didn't want it to be like this," said Ben earnestly. "Don't worry about it. Right now, our priority has to be investigating the energy disturbance. It could happen again." Ozai interrupted but made it brief, "You have my help. Now that the prototype's done, I can return you the favour. Thanks for all you've done." He had a friendly hand on Reed's shoulder.

Later they gave Reed & Ozai their 'scientist space' to probe into the issue. The rest were in the kitchen & dining area, except Ben who took to the bathroom to fool around with his face & stare into the mirror. Sue had set a chair & flowerpot on fire, still attempting to calm herself to no avail. Azula sat at the dining table doing nothing. Johnny was having peculiar problems of his own. He couldn't see his feet, & was walking into objects. "How can you see where you're going?" he muttered. He opened the microwave oven & put a heated pizza slice straight into his mouth. He dropped it, uttering, "Ow! The pizza bit me or something!" Sue had to embarrassingly tell him, "It was probably hot, Johnny." Lately, Azula & Ozai regarded him as the perfect laughing stock.

Clad in extremely loose clothing, Ben walked in. He anticipated silly reactions, the first of them to come from Johnny, of course. As if right on cue, Johnny stared in shock at the bad fashion statement standing before him first, then let out a ridiculous string of kiddie laughs. When he finally stopped, he asked poor Ben, "What is that? Size..extra extra extra extra extra extra extra extra extra large?" A wink added a finishing touch to his question. As usual, Ben's response was a lengthy grunt. Coming down from the main lab, Reed wasn't yet accustomed to his now bulkier figure. He dented an automatic door & chipped the edge of a counter. Ozai, who was with him, seemed fine.

The two came to join the others. Johnny used Sue's powers to make Ben's pants fall to the ground. "That's it! It's clobberin' time!" screamed the victim of excessive laughter. He tussled with Johnny on the floor; it looked like a rugby game involving two players. Ozai took a cup of tea that Azula had made him. He tried blowing to cool his drink first - but flames spurted out of his mouth & got half the white porcelain burnt black instead. Sue & Azula couldn't help but chuckle.

"We've detected another energy sphere. It's gone further into the city," explained Reed. "What are we waiting for?" Sue desperately asked. "Let's go!" said Johnny with enthusiasm.

***

A cast of characters were getting a villainous plot working at the Latverian Embassy.

Doctor Doom stepped out of a chamber engulfed by bright red light. "Speak, Miss von Bardas."

"The Fantastic Four have just left the Baxter Building," said his servant, Lucia.

"Well of course they have, Lucia. As dense as Richards is, he would not have missed my recent activity. Not that it would do him any good; by the time he understands what it is I'm doing, his fate will be sealed." He continued, "Still, I am intrigued that he didn't despond my first incursion. Never underestimate your enemies, Lucia." Victor von Doom's last sentence was what made him that hard to wipe off the villain's list of the Fantastic Four. In fact, he definitely couldn't be wiped off their radar. Formidable & even unpredictable, having the brains was a great plus point belonging to him, if not the brawn.

He may have been a fellow crew member of the Four during their space mission back then, but he currently stood as their #1 adversary **who looked for any means to lash out at them.** He plotted schemes very patiently & with cunning. But whenever he got mad he would be likened to **a roaring lion, relentlessly seeking for whom he wanted to devour.** All that he did stemmed from festering wrath.

The Four resisted him all this time, under the wing of Reed's leadership, and Doom would flee to his abode to reform a different plan if he was defeated. Reed's teammates were well-informed & warned that they do not give place to the devil-like Doom. Or take him lightly at all, for that matter.

"Send a squad of Doombots to observe them," Doom ordered.

"At once, my lord."

***

Screaming citizens ran for cover in downtown New York from hazardous beams being emitted by a giant sphere floating overhead. The Fantasticar sped into the heat of the chaos. Ozai & Azula hitched a fast ride in their car to the same location, warning anyone along the way to keep away from that neck of the woods. "Susan & Ben, you're primary objective is to protect the people below with Ozai & Azula. Johnny & I will find a way to contain the energy sphere," commanded Reed. "That sounds like my cue!" responded Johnny. He leapt out of his cockpit.

"Flame on....oh, wait..oh yeah, I forgot!!!!" It was rotten timing as he was free falling already. The ground was rushing up nearer to him, & fast. "Force field, force field, force field!" he yelled to himself. All his body did was turn invisible. Just inches from the tarmac, he stopped in mid-air. His screaming stopped & he could breathe again. "Oh, I'm so good..," he said under his breath.

The white car arrived below the hovering Fantasticar & Ozai ran out first. With Azula right behind him, he told his driver to speed of to safety. Reed's adrenaline rose slowly, "We have to contain the energy. We need force fields..." "I've got this!" said Sue. She prepared to exit. It took her several seconds to realize she was floating upward. "No, I wanna go down!" She waved her hands & inhaled deeply to focus, then released twin streams of flames to form a flat platform composed of fire just below the giant sphere. Reed was annoyed, "You tried to make a force field, didn't you?" Sue managed a "Shut up" in reply in spite of her embarrassment.

Much to her dismay, the fire platform increased the intensity of the sphere's beams: the beams shot through the platform & anything they hit caught fire in an instant. The danger level had been turned up by at least a notch. Luckily, Ozai was around to use Azula's powers. He quickly absorbed as much flame as possible from trees & road signs that had been hit. Above them, the Fantasticar took off & landed at a safer area a few blocks away. "Remember you're new powers," Reed told Ben. Unfortunately, Reed smashed his own cockpit by accident. A few metres away, Ben caught sight of a bus about to swerve into an elderly woman. He ran to stop it, forgetting about the power switch altogether. The bus flattened him, but Reed stood in the bus's path in the nick of time. The woman was a 'meanie', though. "You're not very handsome, are you?" she said. "You're welcome..," answered Reed. Half of him wanted to explode.

"I'm okay, although I do feel like chewed gum," muttered Ben. "Yeah, you look like it too!" Sue said as she landed. "Oh, that wasn't very nice...," she added in surprise. "Susan Storm, respect Ben's feelings! Oh, please tell me I didn't just say that," Johnny interjected. "Too bad you did," Ozai retorted as he walked to them. He spoke right to Johnny's face (something he wouldn't regularly do), "Honestly, it's a better 'you' when you do that." "Alright you two, break it up," Azula told them. She look confused suddenly; her dad said stuff like what she just mouthed out to avoid petty fights between Johnny & her.

"Interesting. Perhaps when our powers switched, aspects of our personalities did as well," Ben joined in. "I was thinking that too. I got hungry & forgot to tell you," said Reed.


	2. The Final Sphere

"Here's the plan. Johnny, use a force field to contain the energy. Susan, pour as much flame into the sphere as you can. Try to overload it." Sue followed Reed's instruction right away. "Flame on!" she said (Johnny had accidentally said it too) before soaring upward. Just as the energy sphere was within range, it disappeared abruptly, once again. That startled Sue a little & the sphere's force impacted on her as well. Johnny caught her as she fell from the sky; he joked, "That's what you get for being a hothead."

"Okay, H.E.R.B.I.E.'s got a match on the energy type," Ben spoke, sounding more like Reed than he ever did trying to imitate him. "The sphere is utilizing the same inter-dimensional energy as the power gauntlet. It's just inverted....uhh..& I don't know what that means..," he concluded on an awkward note. "That's because you use words with more than one syllable," laughed Johnny. His next words were unusual, "Oh..I..I'm sorry..that was mean. No, no, no! That was funny!"

Azula looked at Reed's PDA in Ben's grasp. "That inter-dimensional energy signature is going to exceed a safe percentage within minutes..," she abruptly said. "Nerd!" Johnny teased while pointing at her. She was ticked off & grabbed the sides of his wrist. She twisted it. Hard. Poor Johnny writhed in pain & decided he keep mum.

Reed picked up where Ben had left off, "If the properties of my power gauntlet were inverted, it could latch on to something in another dimension. It could bring it here to earth." "Bring what here?" Sue already knew the answer would be bad. "Given the energy flares we're seeing, something of great power," replied Reed. H.E.R.B.I.E. helped Reed compare the power difference between the two spheres they'd seen. As expected, the situation wasn't pretty. "You know it's gotta be Doom. He's got one of those power gauntlets. Doesn't he?" said Ben. He had nailed it. An incoming alert from H.E.R.B.I.E. then gave Reed the location of a new energy disruption - taking place near the Latverian Embassy. "Okay, let's go get Doom!" asserted Reed, smashing his fists together.

***

"Intriguing."

"My lord -"

"The Fantastic Four have stumbled their way across my intentions. Although Richards is still clueless as to the power I seek. But more interestingly - he & his team don't seem to be themselves. They're not alone either."

"Would you like to destroy them?"

"Yes, I believe so." He relished the slow speed of his words.

"At once, my lord."

***

The six of them met at the jetty within view of the Latverian Embassy. Ozai & Azula had to drive after the Four. There was no turning back; how else were they to switch their attributes back to normal? A new third sphere towered above the area, emitting more beams each second. Reed's mind started ticking actively, "I think this will work. We may be able to kill two birds with one stone. No pun intended."

"The energy the sphere's emitting is similar to the cosmic rays that created us four. If we can cipher off some of that energy, we can use it to recharge the generator from my experiment earlier, & switch Johnny, Susan, Ozai & Azula back to normal." Sue took a precaution to ask, "So what's the dangerous part of this plan?" "Well, we have to do all of this inside the sphere. & shut it down at the same time, said Reed." "I'm no expert in this field, Reed. Wish I could help more," said Ozai.

Something attacked Reed from behind; he stumbled forward with a thump sounding like gravel. "We got Doombots," Ben alerted them all. A line of Doom's minions faced them now. Sue warned Ozai & Azula, "You two, get back! It's dangerous." "Only if you manage," Azula responded with a sly smile.

Each Doombot had the Four's identities stored in their memory, but they used the wrong weapons to combat their targets as a result of the power switch. This proved advantageous to the team, at least. "Error, identification failure..," muttered a clobbered Doombot after being beaten by Johnny. He had gotten the hang of his sister's powers, so he no longer called them lame. "Target: Invisible Woman. Weapon: Concussion Lasers," said a Doombot chasing after Sue in aerial pursuit. It was blasted with ease by her fireballs. "I hate to say it, but that was hot..," she admitted.

The robots still recognised Ben as "The Thing" although his outward appearance was much less rocky. Thankfully, their power absorbers weren't handy. Ben could twist around them lithely & smashed their heads together. "This is something I always wanted to say - it's clobberin' time!!!" Reed exclaimed. He swung a Doombot into another. "Hey, that's my line...," muttered Ben.

A problem also puzzled the remaining Doombots whereby two new opponents with unknown profiles awaited their attacks. "Target: Unknown. Identification Failure," was all the robots could say. Ozai went for their central processors built into their heads, & punched them hard with burning fists. He combined his leopard kung fu moves to construct heated melee attacks. Azula wished she had firepower, but stayed confident. Her strength, alertness, accuracy & speed had been heightened, & she wasn't going to forget about utilizing them. She smashed the heads of the robots as well, with much success. It felt good. Few of her workouts came close to this level of fun.

"We have to get into the sphere. We're running out of time!" said Reed with urgency. "I need you to create a tunnel with your force fields," he commanded Johnny. Johnny obeyed. More issues flooded in when the Doombots attacking the Four figured it out - "Targets' powers are not consistent with known profiles. Adapt. Targets' powers are switched. Change targets," they instructed one another. One of them could extinguish Sue in mid-air. "I got you, Susie!" said Ben, catching her before she hit the ground. Reed experienced difficulties now as the robots intelligently absorbed shock from his blows. He knew what to do, "Everyone gets in there except Ben! I'll be right behind you with the energy cipher!"

Ben, however, was curious, "All day you've only been taking about the four of them. You're not gonna switch back with me, are you?" "No. I'm not taking my old life back," rang Reed's voice in a reply so honest that it got Ben perplexed. "You deserve this, Ben! This is your chance to be human again. Well, you know, more human." "Reed, I don't know, I...thank you." Ben was so appalled. He was lucky he & his best friend had been roommates in college. **Reed was pretty much laying down his life for him with his decision in that instant.**

All five of the group apart from Ben progressed through the makeshift tunnel made by Johnny. Doombots were on their tail, unfortunately. Upon entering the sphere, Johnny's focus was tiring already. He fell to his knees, striving to hold his powers together. "You can do this, Johnny," Sue encouraged him. He groaned. "Just pretend you're making the hottest flame you can," said his sister. Warmed by the encouragement, he looked up at her. "Breathe," Azula then told him gently. Shoot, her thoughts told her, I'm being mushy. It was supposed to be Ozai's line, but the partial personality switch really had its effects. There was the sound of a laser.

Reed & Ozai were knocked aside, revealing another Doombot who had made it into the sphere. Ozai's suit suffered some burns. The next wave of lasers blasted Sue on her shoulder, ripping the uniform. "Sue..Reed..guys..I can't hold this!" Johnny said with a voice that had cracks of waning confidence. "Yes, you can! You have to collapse the sphere!" Reed said quickly to keep his strength up. Suddenly, Ben's rubbery arm wrapped around the Doombot to restrain it. Ozai got up, putting his two fists together & ramming them, knuckles first, into the robot with an explosive fiery impact. "Do it, Reed. We've got this covered!" yelled Ben at the top of his lungs. Azula pulled Sue up.

"Ben, no! If you're inside when this goes off - " "There's only one way we're gonna survive this. Together." He continued as the robot malfunctioned & fell, "I may not stay my handsome self, but at least we'll get to stick it to Doom!" Reed, in spite of hesitating painfully, went with the plan using his gadget. He lifted it, activated it, & everything went black.

In his chamber, Doom was sent flying backward at the same time by an energy explosion - the result from Reed's action.

***

The surroundings were sparkling when everyone awoke. "You okay?" Johnny asked Sue. "Yeahhh..," moaned Sue, who gave it a try testing her invisibility. Her powers were restored. Johnny's turn came to test his, "Please make this work...flame...on..." His body was ignited & he soared upward with a joyful "Woohoo!" Reed looked behind to see his best buddy, only he was orange & bulky again. Azula immediately got to her feet & lit her fists up in her bright blue fire, on the watch for anymore danger. "Relax, Azula," Ozai told her. Reed's eyes were sad; he approached Ben. "Ben...," he could only mouth out that one word because the guilt felt rather heavy. "Yeah, I'm okay," his rocky friend said.

"Ben, I don't know what to say, but I promise you," Reed had to dig deep for the words, "I won't give up." "I know you won't", was Ben's confident acknowledgement toward the promise. "What do you think Dr. Happy's doing over there?" questioned Johnny in a funny manner. He eyed smoke rising from a high floor of the Latverian Embassy.

"More importantly, I wonder what it was he was trying to get his hands on," Reed filled in with the serious tone he assumed as a responsible leader.

***

"It's not over!" Victor fumed with fury. Awkwardly he exited the chamber. "This is just beginning....." It was a frequent supervillain tagline, but he wanted so badly for the world to hear it.

& he knew so well how much he meant what he said...


End file.
